Tea Reviews | It's All About The Leaf

Posts Tagged ‘Amber’

The leaves are small and black. The dry leaf smell is of tea, a really good quality Ceylon tea. I can smell the tiniest hint of green? Can this be possible in a Ceylon black tea?

I brewed up 2 tsp. in the ingenuiTEA by Adagio for 2 minutes. The tea package clearly indicates that brewing over 3 minutes will produce a bitter cup of tea. The leaves danced around in the hot water.

First sip note: This is not bitter. It is smooth, amber in color and smells like I think black tea should. It’s the kind of smell that invokes memories of yesterdays gone by, the sound of someone mowing the grass, the smell of fresh cut grass. I know this is a black tea, but I do detect a bit of “green” in there also. The wet leaves do have a green hue to them. You take a sip of tea, it is not flavored with anything other than tea leaves. This is a simple tea that does not require milk or sugar.

Added ice and WOW! Decided to do a second infusion and put in my iced tea pitcher for later this afternoon. It is nice hot, but the Pekoe flavor really pops when this tea is ice cold.

You can purchase the Organic Ceylon Tea directly from the Leaf Spa Tea website.

Todays tea is the Kalahari Tea, Red Tea Kalahari Reserve. I personally love Rooibos tea, the sweetness and nuttiness of it. I was looking forward to a good cup of high quality Rooibos tea, with a name like Reserve, it sounds pretty exclusive!

From the Kalahari Tea website: “Kalahari Reserve is 100% pure red tea, selected from the tender tips of the Rooibos bush. With it’s sweet, smooth taste, it can be enjoyed by itself, or with milk, lemon or a sweetener. Rich in antioxidants, red tea tastes great and is naturally caffeine free. It’s the healthy drink you can consume all day long.”

First of all, I heated the water to 100 deg C, pretty standard for Rooibos. I brewed the teabag for 5 mins., again, pretty standard. There are no instructions on the bag teabag package, and it is not very attractive, with just a typed name on it. It would be nice to see some sort of design, something to say that this is more than a boring old teabag!

The tea is a deep amber, again, what I come to expect from a Rooibos tea. The taste is slightly sweet, with some spicy notes – unique for Rooibos, as I have not really tasted any spice in a straight Rooibos before. Unfortunately, that is the end of the distinguishing characteristics for this tea. The brew is bland, almost stale tasting. I don’t detect any nuttiness whatsoever, and I found that I did not enjoy the tea at all. Not an offensive taste, just non-memorable. I am still waiting an enjoyable Kalahari Tea, and I am sure that it is there, I just have not found it yet!

Can anyone suggest which of the following is a good tea to review from them: Ruby Grapefruit White Tea, Cherry Vanilla Chocolatte Red Tea, Highlands Honey Red Tea, Safary Lullaby Red Tea – I really don’t want to do any more negative Kalahari reviews! Leave your comments below.

You can purchase Kalahari Tea Kalahari Reserve Red Tea directly from their website.